An 88-year-old Navy veteran said in his new memoir that he tried to give Harry and Meghan Markle a gift when they moved into the neighborhood, but they snubbed him and he couldn't even get past security. 

Frank McGinity said that he had made some films about the history of Montecito, and he wanted to give the couple a copy, but security turned him away at the door.

“The gate guy turned me away and wouldn’t take the film, just saying ‘they’re not interested.’ I was trying to be neighborly,” McGinity said.

“I have a big house next to Harry and Meghan’s property and I live in the guest house while renting the main house out on Airbnb,” McGinity said in his memoir titled Get Off Your Street, according to The Independent.

"Surprising" addition

He added: “We don’t see them very much around here. It’s surprising they came here. People are typically older. It’s where the elephants come to die.”

McGinty said he lives "a tiara's toss or two" from the Sussexes' $14 million property, purchased in 2020.

It's entirely possible that they chose the quiet community on purpose, though, for privacy reasons and to avoid being in the public eye.

When they moved in, a spokesperson said, “They have settled into the quiet privacy of their community since their arrival and hope that this will be respected for their neighbours, as well as for them as a family.”

The family of four, with children Archie and Lillibet, may want a safe place to raise their children away from the notoriety that seems to follow them everywhere.

Odd relationship

The Sussexes have had an odd relationship with the public since becoming a couple and have been the subject of both admiration and hate.

Some time after their marriage, they gave up their royal titles (although they are still known as the Sussexes, and Harry is still fifth in line for the throne after brother William and his three children).

They live in the United States rather than in England, maybe because Meghan wants to or maybe as another way to stay out of public life.

But in a contradictory way, they also seek publicity, such as when Markle has made comments about politics (she's a leftie) and other issues like the Me Too movement and the overturning of Roe V. Wade.

Harry recently released a memoir, Spare, in which he talked about his prior drug abuse and difficult relationship with William.